I reach up and squeeze his hand at the memory of those pictures.
When we get to the car, Marco is waiting with the door open. I try to get up on my own, but Santiago is beside me in an instant. Marco takes Elena as Santiago guides me into the car before taking Elena and strapping her into her car seat between us in the back seat.
Eva is here too. She’s already seated in the passenger seat typing out a text to someone. She’s going to stay with us even though we’ve stopped the legal process of taking over guardianship of her. There’s no need for it now that my father is alive and well, and Abel is out of the picture.
Abel. I won’t think about him yet. Not today.
Marco closes the door, and a moment later, Santiago settles on the other side of the car seat, and we’re driving back to The Manor. For the first time since I married Santiago, I am happy to go home. In fact, I can’t wait to get home and start our new life with our family.
41 Santiago
Over the next two weeks, Ivy and I settle into a comfortable rhythm. The specialists come to the house to work with her on rehabilitation every day, and every day, we see improvements. She's walking on her own now. Eating on her own. Taking care of Elena when she can, stubbornly proving to herself and everyone else that she's capable.
I never doubted for a second that she wasn't.
I'm proud of her. I feel it every time I look at her, and I understand that's what it is because I feel the same way watching our daughter grow and change every single day. We've all come leaps and bounds from where we used to be. But there are still a few lingering points of tension that haven't been brought up.
Abel, for starters.
At first, I didn't know what to think of Eli's intervention at The Tribunal. But now that I'm a father myself, I can see it for what it is. He did it for me, and he did it for Abel. He doesn't want me to ruin what I have with Ivy. And he feels responsible for the man Abel has become. At some point, he must have realized there was no stopping him. Seeing it from a different perspective, as a father myself, I can't imagine how difficult that decision must have been for him.
He's trying. Every day, he's making efforts to be a better father. To be there for all his children, including Eva, who it looks like we'll have around for quite some time to come. But there is still the dark cloud of Abel's trial hanging over all of us. The Tribunal delayed it until their investigation was complete and pending witness availability, given the recent circumstances. But now that Ivy is out of the hospital, they are ready to proceed this week. Tomorrow, we will come to know Abel's fate.
I thought it would be the hardest thing I'd ever have to do. Giving up the satisfaction of destroying him myself. Avenging my family. But glimpsing what life was like without Ivy, I know now it is the easiest choice I will ever make. If I don't have her, I don't have anything. She and Elena are my future, and Abel's destruction is in the past. It will be difficult, but I will accept Abel's punishment handed down by The Tribunal with the knowledge that it spares my family any further turmoil. And I hope that it will resolve any lingering doubts I have about Eli, giving me the answers that I need.
The door to the nursery creaks open, and I glance up at Eva as she sneaks inside.
"What are you still doing up?" I ask her. "And what is on your face?"
She tiptoes closer, smiling down at Elena in my arms as I'm rocking her back to sleep.
"I heard the baby crying, and I couldn't sleep. I was playing around with some ideas for a Halloween costume."
"A skull face?" I arch a brow at her curiously. "Halloween is still a long way off."
"I wanted to be like you," she answers softly.
Something pulls in my chest, and I feel another piece of my ice shield shattering. She really is a little psychopath, but I think I love her. In fact, I know I do.
"Santiago?" She digs her toes into the carpet, shifting around nervously. "Are you going to send me away soon?"
"Send you away?" I frown. "Why would I do that?"
"I don't know." She shrugs a shoulder. "You have the baby now, and I just keep thinking at some point you'll probably get tired of having me around. Especially if another baby comes..."
I stop rocking, staring up at her as I try to determine the right words. This feels like a test. Something I might face many times as a father in the coming years. And I think about what my own father would have said. There would be no words of comfort. No assurances. His word was law, and there was no defying it.
I am not my father. And I want Eva to know that. I want Elena to know it. I want them to feel something I never did.
Love.
But I'm still fuzzy on the rules. How to express it. How to receive it. In many ways, I'm like a toddler, fumbling through this new existence without a guidebook. But I try, and I think that is all I can do.
"I think I can safely say for your sister and myself, we don't ever want you to leave, Eva."
She offers a small smile. "Really?"
"But someday you will."
Her smile falls, and I rush to get the words out.
"Someday, you will probably go to college and then get married," I tell
